Danubian Landscape

1520-25
Parchment on wood, 30 x 22 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

With a sentimental note and an intuitive science of light and colouring, the masters of the Danube school, Altdorfer and Huber, gave free rein to their lyricism in scintillating mythologies and religious scenes, in which the landscape acquires an importance never before equalled, and vibrates with a completely personal communion with nature.

Altdorfer became a citizen of Regensburg in 1505, and later the Surveyor of the city's buildings. The steeply wooded stretch of the Danube below the city, with the castle of Worth, appears in several Altdorfer paintings.